CBI books NIPER officiating director and eight others

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against then Director, Rama Rao, Officiating Director, KK Bhutani, Registrar and Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO), Wing Cdr PJP Singh Waraich (retd), others officials of NIPER(National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research), Mohali and a private firm based at Thorat Colony, Erandwane, Pune (Maharashtra) and other unknown persons. CBI also conducted searches at 22 places across the country.

The case has been registered under section 120-B, 420, 409, 467, 471 of IPC and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

A CBI release stated that a Preliminary Enquiry was conducted by CBI, ACB, Chandigarh and after completion of the said enquiry, the case was registered against the officials stated above.

It was alleged that the said officials of NIPER entered into a criminal conspiracy amongst themselves and with private firm of Pune for the purchase of database “SciFinder” on exorbitant rates causing loss to the state exchequer. It was also alleged that the said officials along with some unknown private persons and officials of Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, New Delhi caused loss to the tune of crores of rupees to the state exchequer by way of misappropriation of funds, falsification of accounts and diversion of funds from approved project to unapproved items etc.

Searches were conducted today at 22 places in Chandigarh, Mohali, Bathinda, Kurukshetra, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, New Delhi and Bhopal. This included residential and official premises of the accused, which led to a recovery of incriminating documents relating to the case. In addition, FDRs worth about Rs.13 lakhs, bank balance of about Rs.25 lakhs, documents of properties worth Rs.50 lakhs have been recovered from the residence of Officiating Director of NIPER and documents relating to five properties worth Rs.1.5 crores have been recovered from the residence of Registrar and CVO of NIPER, the CBI release stated.